Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

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Friday, 28 October 2011

Real Islam in harmony with real democracy.

I , in Palestinian diaspora, salute the Tunisian people revolution and democratic choice, but I don't say:We, because, I don't represent uprooted Palestinians. I am covinced a trilion per cent that Islam is not at odds with democracy.

When I say Islam, I mean Quran, the holy text, not the history of Islam, nor the relative human understanding of the holy text, and when I say democracy, I don't mean the western Democracy as explained below by Mr. Amayereh. I mean human freedom,which I consider the head of Islam. God created me free, even to deny his existance.

29. Say, "The truth is from your Lord": Let him who will believe, and let him who will, reject(it): for the wrong-doers We have prepared a Fire whose (smoke and flames), like the walls and roof of a tent, will hem them in: if they implore relief they will be granted water like melted brass, that will scald their faces, how dreadful the drink! How uncomfortable a couch to recline on!

Human freedom is the "word that went forth before from thy Lord"

19. Mankind was but one nation, but differed (later). Had it not been for a word that went forth before from thy Lord,their differences would have been settled between them. (Surah 10. Yunus)

38. Those who hearken to their Lord, and establish regular Prayer; who (conduct) their affairs by mutual Consultation; who spend out of what We bestow on them for Sustenance;

Here Shura (consultation) appeared in the holly text in between two of Islam Pillars, Praying (salah) and Spending out (Zakat). So, I wonder, why consultation is not considered a sixth pillar??

I claim, because, unlike the formal five pillars of Islam this sixth pillar may shake the pillars of dictatorship. (The alliance of Pharaoh=Political Power, Haman = Media Power, and Qaroon=Political Money). In prophets stories Quran called this Aliance, Al-Malaa'

Now read the next verses:39.And those who, when an oppressive wrong is inflicted on them, (are not cowed but) help and defend themselves.

I don't need a Sheikh to explain the verses, the oppressed are the people, and the oppressor is the ruler. The people have the right to defend themselve, and they did that all over the history of Islam. They did it in Tunis, and Egypt because the Dictator told them: Shut up. No body has the right to say to anybody:Shut up.

We in occupied Palestine salute the Tunisian people for conducting orderly, democratic and nearly blemish-free elections. In many respects, Tunisia, the first station of the Arab Spring, can be a model to be followed and emulated throughout the Arab world. We are impatiently waiting to see free and transparent elections to take place in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world.

Credit should go primarily to the Tunisia Independent Election Commission which worked tirelessly for months to ensure that the elections were held on time and that absolute transparency is guaranteed.
Indeed, the nearly universal consensus about the transparency of the elections, both in Tunisia and abroad, illustrates the professionalism and credibility of the commission which saw to it that no foul-play was allowed, even behind the curtain.

This is quite important because in the Arab world, especially prior to the Arab Spring, even the smallest and pettiest thing, as far as election transparency is concerned, often proved a formidable challenge and couldn’t be taken for granted.

Moreover , the triumph of the Ennahda party in a country which witnessed ever since its independence from France in 1956 a relentless war against Islam and the Arab language and culture illustrates the resilience and tenacity of Islam in that small North African country.

Yes there was a conspicuous, elitist but quite arrogant stratum of Tunisians who swallowed everything that came from France. But these people, who always received a surplus of media coverage and accorded special attention by their western patrons, have turned out to be unrepresentative of the bulk of Tunisians.

Fortunately, the France party in Tunisia is the only party which is fretting and grumbling about the outcome of elections. These arrogant remainders of the French colonialist legacy are now invoking personal liberties, ignoring the fact that their very Qibla and ultimate role model, Paris, is constantly encroaching on individual freedoms, including freedom to wear Niqab by conservative Muslim women.

Does this mean that the defeated party will now fight a cultural war with the national and Islamic forces in Tunisia in order to secure and guarantee their eroding prominence and status?
Well, if they do, they will lose, because the majority of Tunisians, as is the case throughout the Muslim world, will not allow French or other colonialist legacies to dictate the destiny and future of Tunisia .
We Muslims are not against true democracy, a significant, accumulative human experience which can’t be dismissed lightly. None the less, we are convinced a million per cent that Islam is inherently superior to democracy.

The reason is simple; democracy in its simplest form means the rule of the majority. Right and wrong, morality and immorality, and other values are determined by the people whose views are often subject to all sorts of manipulations by special interest groups, media brainwashing and political money. (Question: Is the U.S. Congress able to say “No” to Israel even if the Jewish state does the unthinkable to the defenseless Palestinians?)

It is this type of democracy that allowed a decidedly criminal state like Israel to steal Palestine from its legitimate, rightful owners, routinely massacre them, demolish their homes, destroy their fields and expel untold numbers of Palestinians to the four corners of the globe.

Needless to say, this was done in the name of democracy and civility and freedom as the leaders of the so-called “free world” cheered this criminality.

Similarly, in the name of freedom and democracy, America invaded, occupied and destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan, killing or causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people.

Well, with all due respect to the committed believers in western democracy, we Muslims don’t believe in this way of thinking because peoples and nations ought to be answerable to values that are higher and more sublime than simple majorities.

Of course, the alternative to amoral western democracies should never be tyranny, dynastic despotism, or military dictatorship.

Instead, Muslims in particular ought to seek Islamic democracy where human rights and civil liberties are guaranteed while general moral values of society are preserved and encouraged. Thus moral vices shouldn’t be accorded the same freedoms as moral virtues.

I hope the west will finally leave us Muslims alone and refrain from interfering in our exercise of our inalienable right to elect our rulers and governments.

Then, and only then, we can speak, for the first time in recent memory, of free people versus free people involved in a constructive relation based on mutual respect and mutual interest.
Just don’t let Israel dictate your agenda toward the Muslim world.